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Teachers are divided over carrying guns on campus

Posted at 8:38 PM, Feb 23, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-24 15:05:55-05

President Trump endorses arming some teachers in the classroom in the aftermath of the school shooting in Parkland, FL., saying it could save students' lives.

"Well trained, gun-adept teachers and coaches and people who work in those buildings, people in the marines for 20 years," the President said.

Bryan Brady, a teacher with Clark County Schools and a marine, says "it's a very good idea. The safety of my children is a sacred responsibility that I take on just like I took on my duties as a marine."

Brady says allowing staffers to voluntarily carry guns could make schools safer.

“If there's a significant percentage of us willing to carry, I believe it would make a much harder target for anybody coming into my school, trying to do harm to my children," Brady says, adding they must be well trained to take on rampaging shooter. "It's the training that takes over and enables you to be able to overcome that stress and that fear."

Teresa Frene, a teacher as well, says most of her colleagues would sacrifice their own lives for the safety of their students. But she says arming teachers is a bad idea.

“Having guns on campus would diminish the children's feeling of safety," Frene says. "I don't know what kind of training it would take to get a teacher in the mentality where they would have to pick up a gun and shoot somebody.”

A spokesman for Clark County School Police says teachers have enough responsibility. Let them take care of the classroom. The spokesman says his officers, armed with rifles, are well equipped and well trained to handle school shooters.